


The Stars Are Different Here

by im_the_king_of_the_ocean



Category: 3Below (Cartoon), Trollhunters (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Homesickness, Protective Siblings, Stargazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-17 16:55:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16099844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/im_the_king_of_the_ocean/pseuds/im_the_king_of_the_ocean
Summary: Aja and Krel talk about how Earth's constellations are different than those of their home planet





	The Stars Are Different Here

**Author's Note:**

> A writing exercise to see how much I like writing about these two characters

Aja pauses her music and slips her headphones out of her ears.She glances around, but the house is still, quiet, and rather dark.At some point while she was busy on the computer, night fell and failed to notify her of its coming.Not that she particularly minds.Back home, whenever she got deep into a project she tended to forget about everything else.At least until Father brought her a warm drink and asked her about her progress while she sipped it, before sending her off to bed.

As Crown Princess and Heir, he always said, she needs to learn to be responsible to her other duties, and that includes getting a good night’s sleep.Even if, he added with a mischievous smile and a wink, technological projects and research were much more fascinating.They’d laugh, smile, and she’d settle into bed happy.

Aja misses those nights.

Not that solitude is necessarily bad either.As much as she likes spending time with her friends and brother, Aja also likes time to herself.But tonight, it makes her restless and uneasy.

There was another quiet night, one which Aja remembers with great clarity, not too long ago.It hadn’t exactly ended well.At all.

So, she pushes herself up off the couch Dr. Lake was letting them crash on—due to the recent development of her emptied house—and sets off to find Krel.

One of Aja’s earliest memories was of the day her little brother was born.He’d looked so strange.So small and wrinkly.His limbs barely formed.He barely even glowed properly.

Though no one had asked it of her, Aja decided in that initial moment, that she would protect this small, feeble thing that was her sibling.She’d watch out for him, guard him against harm.Teach him things, too.Like the joy of pranks or the art of capturing lightning.

She’d also race to his room one night when the calm quietness was shattered by an explosion—an _attack—_ grab him by the wrist, and yank him away to a ship.To safety and another world.

It tends to make Aja just a bit nervous these days when the night is hushed and she doesn’t know where her brother is.Just a little bit.

“Krel?”She calls out, starting up the stairs.“Krel?”

“Out here.”His voice carries through the open window in Jim’s room.

Ah.Krel was sitting on the roof.Aja clambers onto Jim’s desk, upsetting its light coating of dust, and climbs out through the window.

When she settles beside him, Krel says, “The stars are different here.”

“You can hardly see them with all the Earthlings’ air pollution,” Aja counters.It was a reassurance, in a way.As long as it was hard to see the stars, they couldn’t really know they were in different configurations that the familiar ones back home.

“Remember how we used to stargaze with Mother and Father?”Krel asks, eyes still on the sky.

Aja playfully punches his arm.“I remember a certain little brother never being able to sit still and always knocking Mother’s telescope out of calibration.”

“At least _I_ didn’t go chasing after the rainbow glimmer-bugs,” Krel retorts.“And come back covered in sticky sparkleberry nectar when I was completely certain that _this time_ I found their secret nest.”He laughs.“It was always nice when you got in more trouble than me.”

“Hey!”

“You can’t argue with the truth, Aja.”

Aja sticks out her tongue at him.

“So regal.”Krel snickers.“Our future ruler, crickets of the night.”He makes a wide gesture to the unseen chirping bugs.“At her finest.”

“Yeah.”Aja’s voice gets soft.“Future queen.”

They fall silent for a time.

Then, “Do you remember how Mother used to tell us the stories of the constellations?”Aja asks.“And how she made up a new voice for each character?”

Krel smiles.“I always loved that.She didn’t know about the Earthlings, though.”

“When we go back, we’ll have to tell her.”

“Yeah.”


End file.
